


family

by polarisized (orphan_account)



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Adoptive Parent Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Angst, Broken Bones, Character Death, Dysfunctional Family, Father Figures, Father-Son Relationship, Manipulation, Memory Loss, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Character Death, Past Relationship(s), Protective Older Brothers, SBI Family Dynamic, Trauma, no romantic relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:26:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29354931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/polarisized
Summary: i started writing this when tommy left logsted. dream is not in prison yet. bad at naming things
Relationships: Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson
Kudos: 12





	family

technoblade stared blankly at the empty pen where his horse used to stay. 

“hah?”  
he frowned, ignoring the feeling of blood dripping down his face, from his failed execution.

techno paused, upon hearing someone shuffle in his basement.  
that didn’t sound like one of my villagers, he thought.

his ears perked up, and he leaned against the door.

“...fuck...”   
he heard someone curse quietly.

techno rolled his eyes.

even in retirement he couldn’t catch a break.

he pushed the door open in one fluid movement. just as it swung open, a flash of white and red bolted out, hopping down the stairs and sprinting through the snow.

technoblade stood there in shock, before he keened.

he gripped his sword and, in one fluid motion, jumped down the steps after the person.

the snow made everything a bit blurry, and the blood dripping down his face only added to that, but techno wasn’t going to let that stop him. 

moments later, the shape disappeared in front of technoblade.

he froze.

was it a ghost? or was he imagining it? surely it didn’t escape him.

down down down down down down down down down

the voices hissed, prompting technoblade to look down. there laid the person, attempting to pull itself away from techno. 

it flipped over onto its back and held its hands in the air.

“wait, wait, wait, tech, wait!”  
it cried, waving desperately.

technoblade loosened his grip on the sword.

blond hair, bright blue eyes full of fear, and ears pointed at the helix.

“tommy?”

he asked, leaning down slightly. 

“yes, you idiot! i’m tommy!”

oh, he thought. oh.

“what were you doing in my house, tommy?” 

“you cut your hair?” tommy stalled, trying to pull himself to his feet.

“why were you in my house?” 

tommy chuckled nervously. his eyes were frantic, and wild, but not in a feral way. in a fearful way.

“i’m sorry, technoblade, i...”   
tommy paused, glanced to his feet, and in a quick moment, his face went blank.

technoblade was able to hear his brothers panting breaths, but in that moment his breathing had ceased almost entirely.

“tech...” the boy stammered, apprehensively pointing to his ankle.

“your ankle is broken,” techno observed, “unfortunate.”

tommy whined.

technoblade slipped his sword into the sheath that hung at his waist. 

his brother was shivering. techno was unsurprised, he was running around in freezing temperatures wearing only a short sleeved shirt and pants that had been... singed... off at the shins. 

that disturbed technoblade. why had tommy burnt his pants? or, how had tommy’s pants been burnt? had he gotten too close to lava visiting the nether, or was the explanation much more sinister? 

“what were you doing in my house?”

“can you fix my ankle?”

“i’m sure i can, but i wanna know why you were in my house first.” 

“well, first off,” tommy established, rubbing his bare arms in a futile attempt to keep warm.

“i didn’t really know it was your house at first. i was hiding from... i was hiding, okay?” 

“from who?”  
techno asked, lips quirking upward curiously.

“i really don’t wanna talk about it.”   
tommy said, sounding sad.

“fine, then.”   
technoblade whispered.  
“we don’t have to talk about it.” 

“thank you.”  
tommy murmured.

technoblade glanced down to tommy’s ankle, wincing.

it looked... bad, to say the least.

the bone was not protruding from the skin, but the ankle was already swollen and purple. and there was blood, leaking from a cut on tommy’s foot. it was dark, and even with techno’s heightened senses he could not tell if the cut was deep. 

do i even know how to set a broken ankle?

technoblade had been taught how to treat injuries at a very young age. he was the older brother, albeit just by two minutes, and growing up, phil more often than not was busy. but he couldn’t remember if he had set an ankle. 

can’t be much more different than setting something like a wrist, right? they were practically the same thing, anyways.

techno had broken many fingers, and in some cases his entire hand, wrist, or both, doing things that many people would deem stupid. to the blood god, it was not stupid, however.

thoughts were entering and leaving his mind, some too quickly for him to even fully comprehend.

“i think you need help,”   
technoblade told his brother softly.

tommy’s head snapped upwards.

“what?!”   
he yelped, his eyes wide.

“i said i think, tommy. i could probably set this on my own.” 

try do it fix it try do it fix it 

the voices demanded.

why did they care so much about tommy? 

they were his voices. not tommy’s.

“what if you can’t fix it?”  
tommy inquired nervously. technoblade could hear the fear in his voice. it wasn’t very subtle.

“i’ll take you to dad, or he’ll come to us.” 

“i could see dad again?”  
tommy whispered to himself. 

technoblade didn’t answer.  
instead, he curled an arm under tommy’s legs and another around his back.

“ugh... do you really have to carry me like this?” 

techno rolled his eyes.  
“would you rather me make you walk?” he grumbled.

of course he hadn’t meant to be harsh with tommy, but the blood drying into his face from his failed execution was bothering him. the feeling was upsetting, uncomfortable. he silently cursed his adhd because of the sensory issues. 

“you’re so warm,” tommy mumbled, curling closer to his brother. 

“yeah.. being half piglin will do that.” 

then, he had reached his home. technoblade figured tommy would’ve made it farther, but he was barefooted. 

he kicked the door open and carefully laid tommy down across his bed, before moving back to shut the door. 

tommy sat up slightly, looked at his ankle, and groaned. 

“tech... is this a bad time for me to mention that i don’t like blood?”

“we are so different,” 

techno deadpanned, slightly irritated because of the fact that he was still bleeding from his execution. 

“i’m being serious! i really don’t like it.”

“right. don’t look at it, then. i’ll clean it up.” 

technoblade squatted to dig through a chest, before pulling out a cloth.

the blood god moved to clean up the cut on tommy’s ankle.

“this may hurt a bit.”  
techno warned, before dabbing the fabric onto where he believed the blood was coming from. the cut wasn’t very deep, but techno could tell it had been there longer than the break. he would have to ask tommy about it later.

tommy winced.  
“yeah, that did hurt a bit.”

technoblade rolled his eyes. 

he watched the cloth intently. blood did not seep through.

“good, you won’t be needing stitches. as for the break, i should be able to take care of it myself.” 

tommy nodded, leaning back.

he grabbed a blanket that had been neatly folded on a nearby chair and handed it to tommy. 

“i need another one... your foot needs to be elevated. i’ll be right back.” 

tommy gave a small smile as a response, closing his eyes. suddenly he realized just how tired he was. 

technoblade climbed halfway down his ladder, then jumped off. his villagers hummed when they saw the tall figure marred with scars and the long, knotted pink hair.

he walked to the chests he kept packed away in the basement, cape billowing out behind him.

he paused to stare at the hole in the ground. 

“hah?”  
he wondered again.  
better to not think about it, he figured.

techno slowly began to sift through his chests, before pulling out a blanket and a pillow.

“this’ll do,” he mumbled, walking to the ladder that lead upstairs. he tossed the pillow and blanket up, then climbed up himself.

“hey, toms, are you hungry?” 

tommy flushed at the nickname. the last person that called him that was wilbur. he felt a pang of sadness and guilt. he missed wilbur, and techno and wilbur’s uncanny resemblance certainly didn’t help that. 

“uh... a little,” tommy admitted quietly.

“i figured you would be.”  
techno said, slipping the pillow under tommy’s ankle.

he then reached into his furnace carefully, and pulled out a piece of pork.

“here,”   
he mumbled, pushing it into tommy’s hands.  
“sit up to eat it. i’ll cover your ankle so you can’t see it.”

“thank you, techno.”   
tommy whispered, pulling himself up yet again.

technoblade unclasped his cape and laid it across his little brother’s legs.  
“don’t get blood on that, please.” 

tommy began gnawing on the meat, tearing chunks off every now and then.

“while you eat i’m going to get this blood off of my face.”

tommy nodded.

he was confused as to how the blood got there in the first place, but also relieved to see that the blood god still... well, bled.

by the time he had finished the pork, techno had gotten all the blood off his face.

tommy noticed that he had bandages wrapped around his forehead.

“now let me wrap your ankle. it may hurt. well, scratch that, i know it’s gonna hurt.” 

tommy whined again.  
“be careful, maybe.”   
he suggested weakly.

techno pulled out some medical tape from... somewhere, and a thin cloth.

he pulled the cape off tommy’s foot. 

“if you bled on my cape i’ll break the other ankle.”

“your cape is red, technoblade. you wouldn’t even notice.”

“do you not know what dried blood looks like?”  
techno deadpanned yet again, eyes lidded. he was tired, tommy deduced. 

“well, uh, no. this might come as a shock but i don’t really murder people daily.” 

“i mean, you’re right.”   
techno mumbled, laying the thin cloth across tommy’s ankle.

tommy could feel it, albeit barely, over the pain. at least it wasn’t numb.

over the thin cloth he applied the medical tape, wrapped it around tommy’s ankle, and then backed off.

“i don’t know if this... looks right.”  
techno dropped to his knees, fluidly.

“you get on your knees a lot, techno?”   
tommy teased.

techno didn’t respond. tommy figured he was either embarrassed over his little brother’s comment, or uncomfortable. maybe he was just focused. 

that was small comfort, the younger brother acknowledged. 

“i mean.. it looks, wrong. i can’t figure out why.” 

“maybe you didn’t set it right.”

“of course i set it right. i’ve had to fix my own bones, i know how to do it.”

“alright, alright. sorry, tech.”

technoblade rose to his feet again, standing at his full height. despite him being 7’0, tommy did not find his brother intimidating at all. it was probably because they grew up together. well, techno wasn’t intimidating. the blood god was. 

“i’ll just wrap it again. it’ll have to do, until i get dad out of l’manberg.” 

“oh. why can’t dad just... leave on his own?”

technoblade didn’t want to be the reason tommy lost his best friend. he knew how it felt. he lost his best friend the day his twin brother died. 

“i dunno... he just told me he’d feel safer for me to retrieve him.”  
techno was lying through his teeth. tommy bought it, all the same.

“...oh. makes sense, i guess.” 

techno hummed in agreement.

“have you drank any potions recently?” 

the question perplexed tommy.

“i had some when i went into exile, but they were all destroyed when-“

techno quirked an eyebrow up. “when what?” he grilled.

“there was an accident. i got ahold of some tnt and destroyed most of my stuff. don’t worry about it.”

there was an edge to tommy’s voice. technoblade knew he wasn’t telling the full truth.

“huh... i’ll take that as a no, then?”

tommy nodded.

“i’m going to give you a potion. of regeneration, don’t worry. since you haven’t taken one recently you’ll feel woozy, tired, too. don’t be afraid to go to sleep.” 

after a moment of silence, techno added, “you don’t have to take it if you don’t want it, but it’d help.”

his little brother paused to consider the offer, before shaking his head yes.  
“i’ll take it.” 

“great,” techno said, reaching over to his potion stand and examining each on the rack. he held one to his nose, sniffed, then handed it to tommy.

tommy stared at the liquid unsurely. it was pink.

“they don’t taste terrible, i promise. i’ll drink one to show you.” 

it will help with the wounds on my head. you know, the ones that came from an anvil?   
the hybrid taunted himself. 

techno still could not believe that happened. he was still comprehending what had happened earlier, and it hadn’t quite fully registered that he murdered his nephew.

he snatched a second regen potion and downed it in one elongated swallow. 

tommy watched suspiciously, glanced back to the potion, and brought it to his lips. 

it took him a moment to finish the entire thing, but eventually he did.

techno was right. it did make him feel quite... loopy. but he hadn’t expected for it to make him so tired quickly.

his entire body tingled, especially his ankle and the small burns that littered his arms and shin from dream using tnt so close to him. if technoblade had noticed them, he didn’t say anything. for that tommy was thankful. 

he slumped into the warmth of technoblade’s bed, tightened his grip on the blanket, and drifted off.

techno stared thoughtfully down at his brother. the boy was asleep, he had eaten, and his injuries were not terrible. he felt confident that tommy would be okay if he slipped out of the home to find his horse. it shouldn’t take too long, anyways. 

he left through the basement to make sure he didn’t wake tommy.

he stepped out into the cold, realizing he had left his cape with tommy.

“that’s too bad...” he mumbled to himself, before calling out his horses name.

when tommy woke up, it was even darker than it had been. he attempted to sit up, but couldn’t. he was probably just too weak.

when his eyes finally adjusted, he fixated on a figure standing in front of him, watching.

“t...techno?”   
he asked groggily.

an eerie chuckle was its response. a laugh tommy had grown so familiar with during his time in exile.

his body felt weighted.

dream.

not techno at all.

tommy whimpered.

he shut his eyes tightly, and after a long moment of silence he built up enough courage to open them. dream was gone. he was alone in the house.

when technoblade finally had retrieved carl and felt that he would be fine in his mangled pen, he slipped in through the basement.

the cottage seemed... quiet. way too quiet for techno’s liking. 

he climbed up the ladder as quickly and quietly as possible, and found tommy, curled in a ball with his knees to his chest and a hand cupping his mouth.

when tommy realized it was his big brother, he let out a stifled cry, removing his hand from his mouth. his head dropped to his knees as he shook with sobs.

technoblade instinctively backed up. 

sure, the blood god could fix any injuries, could kill anyone with anything, but he would never have been prepared to find his younger brother bawling his eyes out. 

it hurt.

then he keened and stepped forward.

“tommy?”   
he breathed out quietly, placing a hand on the boys shoulder.

even squatted, he towered over tommy. it didn’t help.

“tommy, what’s wrong?”

the normally rambunctious child raised his head weakly, eyes rimmed with red as if he had been crying for a while. techno cursed himself for leaving.

“...dream...” he stammered through his cries.

“dream?”

then technoblade realized.

this was all because of dream.

tommy was hiding from dream. dream destroyed tommy’s stuff. dream hurt tommy. 

the voices screamed for blood so loudly it made technoblade’s head hurt. 

“oh, tommy,” techno said shakily, moving the hand on his brothers shoulder to his cheek.

“dream isn’t here. he can’t hurt you.”

tommy raised his head.

the moonlight illuminating his face made techno realize the severity of... whatever... had happened in exile. tommy looked so sickly, so gaunt. his eyes were sunken in and the normally clear skin had been tainted by multiple different cuts. techno had realized how frail his brother was when he carried him inside, but he didn’t realize it was so bad.

the blood god climbed onto the bed beside tommy and done what phil would do when he was a boy and the voices were too overwhelming. 

techno slipped one arm around tommy’s shoulder and pulled the boy to his chest, and held him there.

he let tommy sob into his shirt, let tommy sink his fingers deep into his arms. whatever would comfort him.

“tommy, as long as you’re with me, dream won’t hurt you.”   
techno whispered slowly.   
“i’ve already beat him once. i can do it again.” 

tommy’s sobbing paused.  
in an instant his hands released techno’s arms and they wrapped around his waist in a tight hug.

the blond boy shifted uncomfortably to move his broken ankle out from underneath himself, inhaled shakily, and looked up to techno.

“will you, really?”   
he echoed, still clinging to technoblade.

the hybrid wiped the tears off of his brothers face with the sleeve of his top, and nodded. 

“of course. we’re family.” 

you didn’t seem to think so when you betrayed me. you didn’t seem to think so when you killed tubbo, when you let dream torture me. 

tommy flinched away from technoblade, releasing him from his hold.

“i.. i’m sorry, tech, i’m tired... can i go back to sleep?” 

the blood god nodded.   
“of course you can, tommy. you don’t have to ask me if you can sleep.” 

“yeah... sorry. can you stay with me? just in case?” 

techno smiled.

“sure, i can. you can have the bed. i’ll stay in the floor.” 

tommy swallowed, wiped at his face again, and stared blankly at the floor.

technoblade grabbed the cape that had been kicked into the floor, probably whenever tommy thought he saw dream, and fashioned it around tommy’s shoulders. it was obviously too large, but techno believed the furs would help keep tommy warm.

then he slipped into the floor beside tommy, his back against the bed frame, and closed his eyes. 

after a moment he heard tommy shift in the bed, noticed that his breathing had slowed down, and felt it would be safe to also sleep.

“g’night, toms,” he murmured, knowing well that tommy would never hear it.


End file.
